Ethical Sales

In line with our (No) Big Bang Approach to change management, we only recommend what your business actually needs to achieve the desired outcome, based on current status.

We will recommend the products and services that fulfil your requirements, as we understand them.

We will detail our understanding of your needs, including cost, time-scale, resilience, and scalability.

We will include access to our sources and resources, where possible. If we cite a particular paper, or use specifications from a supplier site, the information will be in the footnotes.

Alephant believes in and self-imposes an ethical approach to sales.

Ethical behaviour, whether in sales, or any other sphere, is behaviour that is consistent with recognized societal norms such as fairness, honesty, transparency, and so forth[1].

Unethical sales behaviour is, perhaps, more easily defined, and works as a basis for illustrating what ethical sales behaviour is not[2]:

lying or exaggerating about the benefits or availability of a product

lying about the competition

selling products that people do not need

giving answers when the answer is not really known

use of manipulation or high-pressure selling techniques

Ethical sales behaviour places the needs of the customer ahead of the need for a sale. This is not pure selflessness on our part, work in the field suggests that customers notice ethical sales behaviour, and are more inclined to trust and give repeat business to sales people who are perceived as ethical[3] (that would be an example of transparency).

In line with our commitment to ethical selling, Alephant holds itself to the following standards:

1) We will recommend the products and services that fulfil your requirements, as we understand them.

Our specialism is Big Data, but if you do not need a big data solution, we will recommend products and services appropriate to your actual needs.

2) We will detail our understanding of your needs, including cost, time-scale, resilience, and scalability.

Our process requires a lot of knowledge of your existing (or proposed) business or project, and there is not always the time for you to communicate everything, so we document the bases of our decisions as to what you need, not just the decisions themselves.

3) We will include access to our sources and resources, where possible. If we cite a particular paper, or use specifications from a supplier site, the information will be in the footnotes (see below).

Our preference is to ensure that you gain knowledge about the products and services (and methods) you are potentially about to purchase (or adopt) at all stages of the process.